The Desert War

North Africa was a major theater of operations in World War II, and
the war shifted three times across the face of Cyrenaica, a region
described by one German general as a "tactician's paradise and a
quartermaster's hell" because there were no natural defense
positions between Al Agheila and Al Alamein to obstruct the tanks that
fought fluid battles in the desert like warships at sea, and there was
only one major highway on the coast along which to supply the
quick-moving armies. The Italians invaded Egypt in September 1940, but
the drive stalled at Sidi Barrani for want of logistical support.
British Empire forces of the Army of the Nile, under General Archibald
Wavell, counterattacked sharply in December, advancing as far as Tobruk
by the end of the month. In February 1941, the Italian Tenth Army
surrendered, netting Wavell 150,000 prisoners and leaving all of
Cyrenaica in British hands. At no time during the campaign did Wavell
have more than two full divisions at his disposal against as many as ten
Italian divisions.

In March and April, Axis forces, stiffened by the arrival of the
German Afrika Korps commanded by Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel,
launched an offensive into Cyrenaica that cut off British troops at
Tobruk. The battle seesawed back and forth in the desert as Rommel
attempted to stabilize his lines along the Egyptian frontier before
dealing with Tobruk in his rear, but in November British Eighth Army
commander General Claude Auchinleck caught him off balance with a thrust
into Cyrenaica that succeeded in relieving Tobruk, where the garrison
had held out for seven months behind its defense perimeter. Auchinleck's
offensive failed in its second objective--cutting off Rommel from his
line of retreat.

Rommel pulled back in good order to Al Agheila, where his troops
refitted for a new offensive in January 1942 that was intended to take
the Axis forces to the Suez Canal. Rommel's initial attack was
devastating in its boldness and swiftness. Cyrenaica had been retaken by
June; Tobruk fell in a day. Rommel drove into Egypt, but his offensive
was halted at Al Alamein, 100 kilometers from Alexandria. The opposing
armies settled down into a stalemate in the desert as British naval and
air power interdicted German convoys and road transport, gradually
starving Rommel of supplies and reinforcements.

Late in October the Eighth Army, under the command of General Bernard
Montgomery, broke through the Axis lines at Al Alamein in a massive
offensive that sent German and Italian forces into a headlong retreat.
The liberation of Cyrenaica was completed for the second time in
November. Tripoli fell to the British in January 1943, and by
mid-February the last Axis troops had been driven from Libya.